How The Air Force Plans to Fly F-22s Into 2060s

By Kris Osborn, President, Warrior

(Washington D.C.)  Decades after the F-22 Raptor first took to the sky, the stealth fighter is still regarded by many as the best air-supremacy jet the world has ever seen in large measure because the Air Force and Lockheed have continued a decades long modernization, upgrade and sustainment campaign intended to ensure the platform remains relevant and dominant. 

While the F-22 was without question paradigm-changing at the time of its arrival, today’s Raptor is an almost entirely different airplane due to continued modernization efforts to improve the plane’s stealth coating, electronics, weapons systems, sensing and targeting technologies. 

In just the last few years, the Air Force and Lockheed have added sensing, electronics, datalinks, software and improved radar to the F-22 Raptor. Developers have also equiped the stealth fighter with more long-range precision attack technology, a wider targeting envelope or “field of regard,” and new networking technology enabling improved, real-time “collaborative targeting” between aircraft.

F-22

Two new or upgraded weapons, which have been operational on F-22s for  several years now, are advanced variants of existing weapons – the AIM-9X air-to-air missile and the AIM 120-D. Upgraded variants of each are now operational. The new AIM-9X will shoot farther and reach a much larger targeting envelope for pilots. Working with a variety of helmets and display systems, Lockheed developers have added “off-boresight” targeting ability enabling pilots to attack enemies from a wide range of new angles.